IIT-BHU scientist invents UV-fluorescent-ink

Newsbasket Desk October 19, 2020

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Varanasi: Every waste has some potential, due to the lack of knowledge and awareness about its potential benefits, it gets spoiled uselessly all around the world.

Bacterial culture media are very common low-cost reagents, widely used in biochemistry, molecular and microbiology labs to support the growth of microorganisms. “Using “Green chemistry” approach we have made ultra-violet (UV) fluorescent ink from waste bacterial culture media,” said Dr. Vishal Mishra, Assistant Professor, School of Biochemical Engineering, IIT(BHU) adding, “By using very easy three steps of the laboratory procedures, we have recycled the waste bacterial cultured media for making UV fluorescent ink”.

When this ink is used on paper, it is not visible in daylight but becomes clearly visible when exposed to certain wavelength of the UV light due to the blue fluorescence of the ink. Even low-cost, handheld, battery operated UV lamp of low power (4 watt) can be used to see this hidden ink on the paper. This UV fluorescent ink can be used in high school science practical and science exhibitions for various classroom demonstrations in the field of chemical education.

IIT-BHU scientist invents UV-fluorescent-ink

He said this demonstrations based work has been accepted in the Journal of Chemical Educations, ACS. “In our lab, further research is going on where we are working on another application as security ink in the tags of various valuable items, on the bank cheques, and certificates etc. to authenticate the originality of the product,” he said adding that recycling the huge amount of waste bacterial media generated from the various laboratories and industries will produce the most inexpensive UV fluorescent material in the bulk.

“Through such waste recycling at a broader-scale, we can save the environment from chemical pollution. From teaching material to market products (anti-counterfeiting technology) this ink has various applications and advantages like inexpensive, easily available and non-toxic material, he said adding this work has been filed for Indian patent. This work will have a positive impact on humanity due to its benefits to the education system and fighting against the counterfeiting market.